Barnard's star is a red dwarf and is too dim to be seen with the naked eye, even though it's only 6 light years distant from Earth.
Red dwarfs are the most common type of star, and more and more observations of such stars have been finding planets.
An interesting take-away from these observations is that there are likely to be far more planets in our galaxy than there are stars!
https://phys.org/news/2025-03-small...d orbiting,in size to Jupiter than to the sun.
The Alpha Centauri star system is a triple star system consisting of the Sun-like Alpha Centauri A/B pair and the red dwarf Alpha Centauri C.
Alpha Centauri C is known as Proxima Centauri as it is the closest star to Earth at a distance of 4.2 light-years, but like Barnard's star it not visible to the naked eye.
https://telescope.live/gallery/alpha-and-proxima-centauri
I could not view the video you posted since it has been blocked on copyright grounds.
The 1986 drama serial with music is available on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b01bpqdn/the-singing-detective
What platform is the above content on? I was given no option on whether or not to play the video.
Worse, it doesn't stop at the first video, but automatically continues to show me subsequent videos!
Worse, it doesn't stop at the first video, but automatically continues to show me subsequent videos!
"Goodbye, Joe, he gotta go, me oh my oh
He gotta go-pole the pirogue go down the Bayou" (Karen Carpenter)
Gotta say that was some sort of TNT viral link. Autoplay? What? Finally managed to shut it off...
Alpha (A+B) Centauri, which is usually an easy telescope double, (left because right is Beta Centauri) and Proxima Centauri (ringed) photographed on a camera much like mine, but I suspect much image trickery here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri
I have been busy today solving the "Green Gap" problem for my reading light with a massive 12 pounds expenditure.
And this may be another Internet first for Portsmouth's finest solid-state Physicist!
Seems very mellow on the warm white setting, and this may be because it is a genuine RGB light.
At 9W Bayonet it seems rather feeble, more like a 4W, so I may have got this right. But do not plan on taking it apart.
I also have got hold of more new detective mysteries than you can shake a stick at today, courtesy of the wonderful search skills of the girls at Portsmouth Central library.
The first book had not been taken out for 11 years, which seemed ominous. But it was only a foot from where it was meant to be, which had thrown me off.
From Maine to New Orleans to Los Angeles the dumpsters will be overflowing with dead bodies, one supposes, awaiting my favourite detectives to get loose on these heinous crimes. CAN'T WAIT!!! 😀
He gotta go-pole the pirogue go down the Bayou" (Karen Carpenter)
Gotta say that was some sort of TNT viral link. Autoplay? What? Finally managed to shut it off...
Alpha (A+B) Centauri, which is usually an easy telescope double, (left because right is Beta Centauri) and Proxima Centauri (ringed) photographed on a camera much like mine, but I suspect much image trickery here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri
I have been busy today solving the "Green Gap" problem for my reading light with a massive 12 pounds expenditure.
And this may be another Internet first for Portsmouth's finest solid-state Physicist!
Seems very mellow on the warm white setting, and this may be because it is a genuine RGB light.
At 9W Bayonet it seems rather feeble, more like a 4W, so I may have got this right. But do not plan on taking it apart.
I also have got hold of more new detective mysteries than you can shake a stick at today, courtesy of the wonderful search skills of the girls at Portsmouth Central library.
The first book had not been taken out for 11 years, which seemed ominous. But it was only a foot from where it was meant to be, which had thrown me off.
From Maine to New Orleans to Los Angeles the dumpsters will be overflowing with dead bodies, one supposes, awaiting my favourite detectives to get loose on these heinous crimes. CAN'T WAIT!!! 😀
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Sorry to hear. It worked good for me. Just by looking?
I got a Play button on both my attempts.
But now probably reported and removed.
Come back Joe - video is gone!
//
Yes, the errant video platform to which I referred in post #5,623 has now been removed.
I do hope that @indianajo will continue to grace us with his presence on this thread.
I do hope that @indianajo will continue to grace us with his presence on this thread.
What would you see if you lived on a planet of Galubrious climate near Alpha Centauri? Scientists have the answer.
It would look like this on a starry night, should you venture out from Nebe High School, unafraid of the Nightcrawlers of Alpha Centauri!
Why, there is the notorious TNT's favourite star, Capella, and our own small orb we call The Sun.
But the icing on the cake for the strange inhabitants must be the spectacular view of the hunter Orion. Do they wonder if there is life on other stars?
Perhaps Butch and Suni should consider this destination for their next mission?
Lest you think I make words up, here is the Nebe High School prospectus which I found on my intrepid travels around the World Wide Web. I was sure I knew the word Galubrious.
But I thought it meant a style of using five posts where one would do.
Clearly, the discerning parent would send their daughter to this school to learn the highest usage of the English Language.
It would look like this on a starry night, should you venture out from Nebe High School, unafraid of the Nightcrawlers of Alpha Centauri!
Why, there is the notorious TNT's favourite star, Capella, and our own small orb we call The Sun.
But the icing on the cake for the strange inhabitants must be the spectacular view of the hunter Orion. Do they wonder if there is life on other stars?
Perhaps Butch and Suni should consider this destination for their next mission?
Lest you think I make words up, here is the Nebe High School prospectus which I found on my intrepid travels around the World Wide Web. I was sure I knew the word Galubrious.
But I thought it meant a style of using five posts where one would do.
Clearly, the discerning parent would send their daughter to this school to learn the highest usage of the English Language.
Galubrious could be the opposite of salubrious, i.e., not so health-giving!
By the way, my wife frequently remonstrates with me for Galumphing about the house.
Astronomers have confirmed that 3 planets, designated b, c & d, orbit around Proxima Centauri, forming the closest solar system to the Earth.
Planet b is of the most interest as it orbits within the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri and is about the same size and mass as the Earth.
Sunset on Proxima Centauri b
Although it's only 12.5% the mass of the Sun and only 0.0056% as bright, Proxima Centauri will continue to shine for an estimated four trillion years, while the Sun will burn out in around five billion years. https://www.worldatlas.com/space/what-is-the-closest-star.html
By the way, my wife frequently remonstrates with me for Galumphing about the house.
Astronomers have confirmed that 3 planets, designated b, c & d, orbit around Proxima Centauri, forming the closest solar system to the Earth.
Planet b is of the most interest as it orbits within the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri and is about the same size and mass as the Earth.
Sunset on Proxima Centauri b
Although it's only 12.5% the mass of the Sun and only 0.0056% as bright, Proxima Centauri will continue to shine for an estimated four trillion years, while the Sun will burn out in around five billion years. https://www.worldatlas.com/space/what-is-the-closest-star.html
I seem to have suffered a malapropic error on the rather surreal word "Galubrious". 😳
The correct word I had misplaced in my mental filing system was, in fact, "Lugubrious". Meaning of sad or dismal appearance. Bit like North End in Portsmouth.
I found it next to "Laconic" which, frankly, is a word that applies to many of you. But not to Galu. 🤣
I wonder if there is life on Proxima Centauri b? It seems to be in the "Goldilocks Zone", at least according to science pundit Ethan Siegel:
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/confirmed-exoplanets-nearest-single-star/
The orange star Proxima Centauri orbits Alpha Centauri (A+B) every half million years, so might as well be unbound. Alpha Centauri is distant and just looks like a very bright double star. I checked this, and plant life is OK with orange light.
Conditions must closely resemble Jack Vance's famous "Dying Earth".
You will recall that the evil Mazirian the Magician became smitten with the lovely T'sain, who, unbeknown to Mazirian, was grown in a vat by the magician Turjan.
He unsurprisingly did not survive his attempt to kidnap her. And nor did she. But Turjan simply grew another T'sain in his vats, so all was well.
Turjan knew the secret of growing intelligent women, which was the secret Mazirian sought. Though T'sain's twin sister, a less successful experiment, was a woman of psychotic character.
I always envisaged T'sain, and perhaps... shudders... her doppelganger, to be played by Gwyneth Paltrow, famous for her cosmic nature and gravitational pull and goopy soap:
NIcely on-topic again, one feels. 🙂
The correct word I had misplaced in my mental filing system was, in fact, "Lugubrious". Meaning of sad or dismal appearance. Bit like North End in Portsmouth.
I found it next to "Laconic" which, frankly, is a word that applies to many of you. But not to Galu. 🤣
I wonder if there is life on Proxima Centauri b? It seems to be in the "Goldilocks Zone", at least according to science pundit Ethan Siegel:
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/confirmed-exoplanets-nearest-single-star/
The orange star Proxima Centauri orbits Alpha Centauri (A+B) every half million years, so might as well be unbound. Alpha Centauri is distant and just looks like a very bright double star. I checked this, and plant life is OK with orange light.
Conditions must closely resemble Jack Vance's famous "Dying Earth".
You will recall that the evil Mazirian the Magician became smitten with the lovely T'sain, who, unbeknown to Mazirian, was grown in a vat by the magician Turjan.
He unsurprisingly did not survive his attempt to kidnap her. And nor did she. But Turjan simply grew another T'sain in his vats, so all was well.
Turjan knew the secret of growing intelligent women, which was the secret Mazirian sought. Though T'sain's twin sister, a less successful experiment, was a woman of psychotic character.
I always envisaged T'sain, and perhaps... shudders... her doppelganger, to be played by Gwyneth Paltrow, famous for her cosmic nature and gravitational pull and goopy soap:
NIcely on-topic again, one feels. 🙂
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I watched a video last night which explained that planet b was tidally locked to Proxima Centauri, meaning that one of its hemispheres is perpetually hot while the other is perpetually cold.
However, there is the possibility that liquid water and hence the conditions for life may exist at the terminator between the hot and cold hemispheres.
Then I find that the James Webb has detected a peculiar heat signature on the cold, dark side of the planet - circled in blue in the image below.
Could it be that a highly advanced civilization has developed the means to inhabit the cold, dark side of Proxima b, using the planet itself as a shield against the intense solar flares and radiation bursts from their red dwarf star?
Soon, we may be sending nanoprobes capable of travelling at close to 20% the speed of light that could reach Proxima b within several decades.
indianajo may be taken in by your usual Hoey, Guyal of Sfere Galu, BUT I AM NOT. 😡
That is more likely a detail of Vermeer's masterpiece magnified than a JWST image of Proxima Centauri b... 🤔
The World's biggest telescopes struggle to resolve red supergiant giant Betelgeuse as a disk, never mind a tiny planet sufficient to spot city lights, supposing they are even there.
I rest my case. 😎
That is more likely a detail of Vermeer's masterpiece magnified than a JWST image of Proxima Centauri b... 🤔
The World's biggest telescopes struggle to resolve red supergiant giant Betelgeuse as a disk, never mind a tiny planet sufficient to spot city lights, supposing they are even there.
I rest my case. 😎
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The hooey is promulgated by YouTube videos and by: https://blog.sciandnature.com/2024/10/the-james-webb-space-telescope-detected.html
These are unsubstantiated claims that the JWST has discovered flickering lights originating from all sections of Proxima b.
However, the JWST is capable of taking a direct image of an exoplanet, but certainly not a detailed view of its surface:
The small white star in each image marks the location of the host star HIP 65426, which has been subtracted using the coronagraphs and image processing: https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/09...its-first-ever-direct-image-of-distant-world/
And, from three days ago: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/w...oung-giant-exoplanets-detects-carbon-dioxide/
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Has anyone noticed, as I have, the extraordinary resemblance between "The Girl with a Pearl Earring" and that luminous star, Scarlett Johansson?
I wonder if they are related?
I shudder to think what websites Galu, apparently without any guile, visits.
Here I found an endless stream of the James Webb's startling discoveries:
Thank goodness Brian Cox is not there. Oh wait!
Perhaps the real appeal is in the adverts which promise much, even if I think she is probably after your money:
Even the fountain of youth, which I know is actually delivered by buying Gwyneth Paltrow's tested and proven Goop products:
My advice is to be aware that there are a great number of Charlatans out there. We should not give them the oxygen of publicity.
I wonder if they are related?
I shudder to think what websites Galu, apparently without any guile, visits.
Here I found an endless stream of the James Webb's startling discoveries:
Thank goodness Brian Cox is not there. Oh wait!
Perhaps the real appeal is in the adverts which promise much, even if I think she is probably after your money:
Even the fountain of youth, which I know is actually delivered by buying Gwyneth Paltrow's tested and proven Goop products:
My advice is to be aware that there are a great number of Charlatans out there. We should not give them the oxygen of publicity.
Here is the JWST NIRCam image of planetary system HR 8799, a young system 130 light-years away.
The star HR 8799 (whose position is represented by the star symbol) has had its light blocked by a coronagraph.
The colours of the planets have been assigned according to the filters used.
The closest planet (e), orbits 1.5 billion miles from its star, which in our solar system would be located between the orbit of Saturn and Neptune. The furthest (b), orbits around 6.3 billion miles from the star, more than twice Neptune’s orbital distance.
There's more in my earlier link: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/w...oung-giant-exoplanets-detects-carbon-dioxide/
The star HR 8799 (whose position is represented by the star symbol) has had its light blocked by a coronagraph.
The colours of the planets have been assigned according to the filters used.
The closest planet (e), orbits 1.5 billion miles from its star, which in our solar system would be located between the orbit of Saturn and Neptune. The furthest (b), orbits around 6.3 billion miles from the star, more than twice Neptune’s orbital distance.
There's more in my earlier link: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/w...oung-giant-exoplanets-detects-carbon-dioxide/
Dr. Becky's latest video "Night Sky News March 2025" is well worth the watch.
It includes news on the upcoming partial solar eclipse, the enormously reduced chance of the asteroid impact and details of where the planets can be found in the spring sky. There are also updates on the Vera Rubin observatory and the Euclid results.
The main thrust is the new evidence that Dark Energy is changing with time, casting doubts on the Lambda CDM model of the Universe.
Stay to the end to discover the happy personal news that Becky has to share!
It includes news on the upcoming partial solar eclipse, the enormously reduced chance of the asteroid impact and details of where the planets can be found in the spring sky. There are also updates on the Vera Rubin observatory and the Euclid results.
The main thrust is the new evidence that Dark Energy is changing with time, casting doubts on the Lambda CDM model of the Universe.
Stay to the end to discover the happy personal news that Becky has to share!